The present invention is concerned with the production of gels from plant matter and gels produced from various plant source materials.
Large numbers of plant sources contain hemicelluloses, which are composed of various arrangements of pentoses (such as xylose and arabinose), hexoses (such as mannose, glucose and galactose) and/or uronic acids (such as glucuronic and galacturonic acid). Examples of hemicellulosic materials include xylans (such as arabinoxylan), mannans and galactans, which may be substituted by phenolic acid residues such as ferulic acid (4-hydroxy-3-methoxycinnamic acid), coumaric acid (p-hydroxycinnamic acid) or vanillic acid (4-hydroxy-3-methoxyl benzoic acid). Such materials occur naturally in cereals such as maize, barley (including malted barley), wheat, oats and rice; pulses, such as soya; legumes and fruit.
French patent specification 2545101 is concerned with modification of sugar beet pectins by reacting an oxidizing system comprising an enzyme (such as peroxidase) and an oxidising agent (such as hydrogen peroxide) with pectins which have been isolated from sugar beet. The isolation of pectin comprises subjecting the sugar beet to acidic extraction and heat treatment.